House Call
by ozma914
Summary: Post-Chosen: A mysteriously ill Dawn faces an odd choice, when mysterious strangers appear with dire warnings about her condition. Features Giles, Xander, Willow, and surprise guests.
1. Chapter 1

Dawn was pondering wills, and who to leave her diaries to, when she felt a chill that made her shake violently

Dawn was pondering wills, and who to leave her diaries to, when she felt a chill that made her shake violently. At first she thought it was the illness, and for awhile she settled back into her pillow.

It was one of those mysterious illnesses, as if a cold wasn't bad enough. Cheryl, the slayer nurse, had passed Dawn on to a doctor who still made house calls and didn't ask too many questions. That woman – it only made sense that Giles had found a female doctor for his gaggle of slayers – had ordered more tests than everything House ran in a whole season.

Fever, headache, dizziness, lethargy … she'd been so healthy as a kid, and now she was a research project.

"Bleh." She reached for her water bottle, which had been filled by one of her visitors. Clem had brought soup for a late supper; then came Buffy, Xander, Buffy again, Giles, Willow, and Buffy once or twice more, at intervals of about an hour. A girl couldn't get a decent night's sleep.

God, she hated being taken care of. She brooded on that for a moment, while some odd feeling tickled the back of her brain – the feeling that something was very wrong.

After all these years of being attacked by various creatures of the night she'd gotten thoroughly sick of being watched after by others. Okay, so she was really sick – it's not like she didn't have a good excuse for staying in bed. But ever since they got to Chicago she'd been trying to overcome her reputation for getting into trouble, and needing help yet again sure wasn't improving things.

Then she froze, feeling it – a wave of dizzying energy.

It was as if something, some force of incredible power, had passed by and enveloped her in its energy. She jumped out of bed despite her muscle aches, stumbled against the wall of her little bedroom, but managed to stay on her feet.

"What –?" Something was here, something of incredible power in the building. Something magical.

That could be bad. Magical hell had broken loose before in the Council headquarters, and she had the memory of bad hospital food to prove it.

Dawn swayed in place, waiting for a moment of dizziness to pass, and looked blearily at her alarm clock. Almost ten a.m. – she should be at her Advanced Latin class right now.

Pushing herself away from the wall, Dawn stepped into her slippers, then headed toward the door. If something was going on, she'd darn well be there to help. She shoved the door open, braced herself for a moment, then started off down the hallway. The force pulsated through the building as if alive, and she allowed it to pull her toward the conference room across from the gym.

Two slayers stood there, both armed, watching her approach with incredulous expressions. "Um, you're not supposed to be up," Suzy told her.

"I'm up." Mouth set firmly to keep her teeth from chattering, Dawn started to move past them, but Vi blocked her way.

"Dawn, they're having kind of an important – thing – in there."

"I know, I felt it too."

"Felt what?"

Dawn looked at the other two girls, and realized neither had a clue about the immense power that had entered their lives. Was this just her? Was this a Key thing? "Oh, I've gotta get in there."

"But –" Vi's gaze swept over her.

Looking down, Dawn saw a sweat-dampened cotton nightshirt -- red with a teddy bear on the front -- bare legs that could use some Nair, and fuzzy slippers with still more bears covering her toes. For the first time, she realized the bears appeared to be looking up her skirt.

"Maybe you should change first?" Suzy suggested.

"They can take me as I am," Dawn declared with a raspy voice. "Besides, it fits – I'm in a bear of a mood." She shoved past them.

Inside, Buffy had been pacing right by the door, and almost collided with her sister. They supported each other for a second, while Xander, Willow, and Giles leaped from their seats at the conference table.

But it was the two strangers who immediately grabbed Dawn's attention.

It would be hard for them not to, considering how the male swept toward her despite Buffy's threatening growl. She pushed Dawn behind her, almost making her sister keel over, but the man wasn't deterred.

"There you are – fantastic! The object of all this fuss." He spoke with a distinct British accent.

"You're scaring her," warned a blonde woman of about Dawn's age, who sat at the table with her legs crossed, looking relaxed and a little bemused.

"No he's not," Dawn protested. "I'm just sick."

"Yes, so you are," the man said, "and so here we are – do you trust me?"

Xander made a scoffing noise.

Dawn stared at the man, who was grinning like a maniac. Who was the source of the power she'd detected. She could see it rolling off him now, in waves. "Yes."

"Yes?" Willow exchanged a startled look with Xander. Giles just stood there, a dangerous expression on his face.

"Yes. Sure. He could have destroyed us by now." Dawn turned to address the man. "What do you want?"

"You." He waved his hand to encompass her outfit. "And you fit right in, too!"

"You really do," the blonde agreed with a nod. "You should see his old wardrobe."

Giles cleared his throat. "Perhaps it would help if you could be a bit more specific."

"What?" The man whirled around, his leather coat billowing behind him. "Isn't it obvious? This girl's a mystical key, a portal into another universe. These things shouldn't exist, yet there she is."

Dawn looked to the girl, who gave her an encouraging wink.

"Yes, but what's wrong with her?" Buffy brushed a hand against Dawn's cheek. "Why is she sick?"

"Well, she's surrounded by mystical people -- that's something her creators didn't consider. I'll bet she's been hit by actual bolts of pure energy, hasn't she?"

"Um, twice," Xander admitted.

"Three times." Willow glanced at Xander. "Remember, when Buffybot got resurrected?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Oh, the robot, fantastic!" The man turned his attention on Willow. "Can I see it?"

"No!" Hands on hips, Buffy glared at him. "Whenever I'm in Chicago, it's on assignment. Can you help my sister, or not?"

"Oh, of course." Turning, he held his hand out toward Dawn. "I can take you to a place where the energies can be drained off harmlessly – in fact, they could even help power my ship. I usually use a supernova for that …"

"Your ship?" Dawn stared at him, watching in wonder as he seemed to glow. She realized she could see it from the girl too, although on a much smaller scale. "And I'd be normal after that?"

"Oh, no ... you'll be well, and seem normal, as you always have – but you'll continue to be special inside."

"What if I don't go?"

He sobered instantly. "Well … eventually your illness would become … a problem."

"What kind of problem?" she pressed.

He took a breath. "A fatal problem. Not for you – you'd simply become a ball of energy again, existing in that space between universes. But that conversion would release a lot of energy."

He didn't have to say more. Fatal energy, bomb type energy. Maybe she shouldn't trust this guy; maybe she should have the same suspicious expression that everyone else wore. But he had an aura of good that even Willow didn't seem to recognize. "I guess there's not much of a choice then, is there? You just have to promise that if you can't fix me you'll take me to a place where no one will be hurt."

That shocked everyone into silence. The man, his face grave, simply nodded.

Buffy turned to Giles, her expression murderous. "You said disaster always surrounds this guy."

"Well, yes." After a moment, Giles shrugged. "But disaster always surrounds you, too, Buffy. It's rather the cost of being a hero, wouldn't you say?"

After a long moment Buffy said only, "If you're going with him, I'm going too."

The man held out his hands in invitation.

More silence. Dawn looked around at the expectant faces, and suddenly realized they were waiting on her to make a decision. It was up to her, then? To stay here, and maybe survive by some magical miracle pulled out of Willow's hat? Or to go with some stranger who seemed drawn to danger, to some place where she might simply fade into the nothingness she'd been drawn from?

"Somebody get me some clothes," Dawn said, and then she pointed at the man. "And tell me who my new friend is."

The blonde grinned. "Oh, he's just called The Doctor."

"The Doctor," Dawn repeated. Well, that made sense in this case. "Doctor Who?"


	2. The Doctor and the Key

_When Doctor Who tries to cure Dawn's mystical illness, he unintentionally opens her mind to a greater universe -- one she might not want to return from._

--

"Is this going to hurt?" Dawn asked, lying back on a sofa in what she'd learned was a Time And Relative Dimension In Space machine. Whatever that was.

"No, not at all." The Doctor whipped a pair of – were those 3-D glasses? – from his pocket, and gave her a careful once-over. "Well … I've never actually done this before, mind you – but why should it?"

Not overly comforting. But since the strange dark haired man had convinced them she was going to wipe out Chicago if they didn't bleed off the excess energy that was making her sick, she wasn't in a position to argue. Instead she was in a supine position, her legs dangling over the end of the only piece of furniture in the strange, domed control room.

Dawn watched curiously as The Doctor dug still another wire from the innards of the TARDIS control panel, using a piece of tape to apply it to her forehead. It was the fifth such connection he'd made, including a tube wrapped around her left bicep, two wires that Rose had helpfully connected to her chest, and one clipped onto her right ring finger. Frankly, his comment that she should relax was beginning to sound ludicrous.

Still, Buffy hovered nearby, leaning on her scythe while her alert gaze took in everything that went on, and The Doctor's blonde companion was nothing but helpful. As for The Doctor himself, he seemed too young, and half crazed, and she got the distinct impression he was improvising everything as he went along.

And yet, Dawn couldn't help but trust him. Maybe it was how sick she was feeling, but ever since she'd walked into this place – which was way bigger inside, by the way – she'd dutifully followed his every direction. The fact that she wasn't complaining or asking The Doctor lots of questions seemed to worry Buffy to no end.

To make her sister feel better, Dawn used the moment when The Doctor took a strange little device from his pocket and directed it at her chest to act more like herself. "Are you seeing through my clothes?"

He whipped off the 3-D glasses. "Not at the moment, no."

"What is that thing?"

"Sonic screwdriver."

"It's very versatile," commented Rose, who was hovering almost as much as Buffy.

Dawn nodded, and rested her head back on the pillow Rose had improvised from her jacket. "I've got a Sonic toothbrush."

"Fantastic, I should add that to my toolbox." The Doctor put his screwdriver away and stepped to the control panel. "Ready, then? We'll drain the excess energy you collected into a neutron star."

"What? Can I see?" Dawn started to sit up, but The Doctor raised a cautioning hand.

"Later. You'll be asleep for this, but no worries – I'll show you the star and anything else you want after you're well again."

"Cool." She tried to relax, and wondered how she could possible fall asleep when she was this stoked. "And ice cream – chocolate …"

As soon as Dawn's eyes closed, The Doctor cracked his knuckles and started working at the controls. "Right, then – she won't remember a bit of this."

_Dawn looked down at the little blue box orbiting the neutron star, but it was so little she had trouble concentrating on it. She opened up, seeing the entire system, then the stellar cluster around it, then the whole galaxy. There were so many of them, so many glittering lights. she started wondering if she could see the whole universe, or beyond –_

Buffy stared down at her sister, then at the console, trying to make sense of the wiggling lines and graphs. She was on edge, still nervous about handing her sick sister over to this guy who'd suddenly appeared in the middle of the Council Headquarters with a crazy story about being a Time Lord. She wanted this done, but above all she wanted to remain on The Doctor's good terms until she had Dawn back. "Sorry about leaving Mickey behind. My friends can be a little over protective."

Without looking up from the console The Doctor said, "That's what we bring him along for – to act as hostage. Anyway, I think he liked staying behind in a building full of girls."

Rose said nothing, but she looked a little offended.

_There were other Keys, scattered across the universe like sparkling diamonds in a gravel pit. Mostly they were all alone, but she saw two close together, and focused in on a little blue ball that she suddenly realized was Earth. It was so tiny – why had she ever wished to remain there in the first place, when there was so much else to see?_

The Doctor stared hard at his readouts, eyes narrowing.

"So this will just bleed off all that magical energy she's been zapped with over the years, and she'll be fine?" It wasn't the first time Buffy had asked, but this was the first time he showed irritation in his answer.

"Yes, yes – she'll still be a key, but she'll still be herself, too – no supernatural overdose. You should all be more careful about throwing those energies around, you know – they don't belong on your Earth."

_Dawn didn't belong on Earth. And yet there were two more like her, and she realized they were the mystical portals for the other two gods that had once battled Glorificus. Was Earth just the location of the doorway between dimensions, or were the three keys somehow magically attracted to each other?_

_She leaned closer, and discovered one key had been used. It had opened a door from another reality, and now resided inside a blue tinged former human, along with the god Illyria. Was Illyria one of the three gods? She didn't know – she didn't know a lot of things._

_The other key resided on the other side of the continent. It too had been turned into a human, a bright but otherwise normal young girl named Rory Gilmore. She brushed the girl's consciousness, and realized she knew nothing of her supernatural origins._

Rory raised her head from the journalism book she'd been studying. "What was that?"

"Are you all right?" her mother asked. "You look a little green. Not a good Kermit green, but more like a bad 'Kirk invented another health food' kind of green."

The strange touch of consciousness had already faded. Shaking her head, Rory mentally brushed the feeling away and ignored the way it made her skin crawl. "Maybe I shouldn't have gone for that fourth Ho-ho."

Her mom shrugged. "It's way too late to clean the cobwebs out of the oven now, kid."

--

Across the country, Illyria paused for just a moment, pondering the power that had brushed her mind. Concluding it was neither a threat nor something she could use to her advantage, she went back to throwing Spike across the room. She'd learned to enjoy these moments.

_Should she make contact? Or would it raise the ire of the other two gods, who had imprisoned Glory in the first place? For that matter, could Glory come back somehow? With a quick, almost effortless mental push, she used the energy of the TARDIS to permanently seal shut the door she'd once almost opened._

Inside the TARDIS, all the lights dimmed, and the machinery let out an almost human moan while red lights flashed and alerts bleeped. "What?" The Doctor spun from his controls to Dawn, then back again. "What?"

_How horribly boring and routine life on Earth was! There were huge, teaming civilizations, astronomical wonders, even new universes to explore. Her natural curiosity made her pulse with excitement, and Dawn realized all she had to do was expand out of her physical body, become a mystical ball of energy again, and spend eternity exploring the cosmos._

"She's glowing!" Rose shouted.

The Doctor worked his controls frantically. "I don't understand. She's reversed the flow – instead of bleeding out energy, she's sucking it in!"

Hefting her heavy scythe, Buffy took a threatening step forward. "Give me something to kill."

But The Doctor shook his head. "There's nothing to kill, Buffy – Dawn's doing this."

_Buffy didn't need her. No one really needed her – they'd grieve, but they'd move on. All the things she could see – all she was ever curious about – all there, waiting for her –_

"Dawn –" Buffy reached out, but her hand passed right through her sister's body as it glowed brighter, and started to expand. "Do something!" she demanded, now threatening her host with the weapon.

The Doctor didn't see her. He was staring at Rose, eyes, wide, shaking his head while an unspoken "no" appeared on his lips.

Buffy spun around, to see Rose's eyes glowing. The Doctor's companion ignored them both, and reached down to place her hands on either side of Dawn's head. A tendril of glowing energy formed between them.

_"No, Dawn."_

_The voice was in her mind, and Dawn almost ignored it. A mind was just a puny human thing, after all._

_"Curiosity is part of being human, dear. So is wonder. If you give up your humanity, you'll be able to wander the stars – but you won't care. You'll just be mindless energy again."_

_Now Dawn turned, wanting to argue, wanting to believe she could be this great thing and still maintain her consciousness. Then she saw the speaker, and forgot all of what she'd been about to say._

_"Mommy?"_

The glow faded. Dawn lay there, whole again, and as a normal looking Rose slid lifelessly to the floor the lights came on again. The Doctor went to his charge, and Buffy to hers.

After a moment each opened their eyes, and breathed out:

"Wow."

#

"The TARDIS did it," Rose explained, as the four sat in a circle later. "I remember thinking someone needed to reach Dawn, and that's when the ship just – reached into me. I was able to find her and guide her back."

"I was going to start smashing the console," Buffy admitted. "It was all I could think of to do."

"Wouldn't have helped." The Doctor had been uncharacteristically quiet, ever since checking both women and declaring them to be free of foreign energy. "The TARDIS had been draining energy from Dawn, using what it could of it, and ejecting the rest into the neutron star, where it would be harmless. By the time you were ready to start destroying things, she'd already reversed the process and drawn so much energy that she didn't need the ship anymore."

"That's when the TARDIS reactivated its connection with me," Rose murmured.

Dawn looked at the floor, her face coloring.

"But who wouldn't have been tempted?" Rose added. "Was it any different from me going with The Doctor? It's all about curiosity, isn't it?"

"I suppose so." Buffy sighed, then reached out to take her sister's hand. "I'm just glad everyone's cured, and Rose was able to guide you back to us."

"I don't understand one thing," Dawn said to Rose. "I saw you there, ready to lead me. But what made you think to pose as my mother to convince me to come?"

Rose gave her a blank stare. "What do you mean? I didn't do that."

"But – it was just like mom was there, giving me a good talking to. If it wasn't you, who was it?"

They looked at each other. "I would suggest," The Doctor said quietly, after a moment's contemplation, "That the TARDIS isn't the only being that can do things beyond man's understanding."

Feeling overcome, Dawn reached out to hug her sister tight. "Thank you," she said.

But she wasn't speaking to Buffy.


End file.
